Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

After today's run I feel like there should be a category above for very easy miles. I really needed a true easy run and today I did just that. I did the normal run with Sasha but we just chatted and ran at about 7:30-8:00 pace the entire time. This was a good true rest day for me. I need to force myself to do this every once in awhile as I have a tendency to gradually pick runs up to 7:00 pace or faster on a daily basis and it adds up after awhile. It felt good to not feel tired by the end of the 10 miles.

13.5 miles at a steady pace and last three miles at about 6:10 pace. Felt ok for 4:30 in the morning. Not much else to talk about.

Was up in Logan this morning and got up at 4:15 and ran 13 miles with one of cadets that is on BYU Track Team. I forgot my GPS so just ran by feel and estimated distance. We started at what felt like 7:20-30 pace and gradually picked it up. By the end I thinkg we were at about 6:30-40 pace at least. This was an easy run for him and he guessed about the same paces I did throughout the run. It was very cold in Logan official temperature when we were running was -9.4'F!!! I'm starting to be thankful for Provo weather considering it was 15'F this morning in Provo. 

After running we went downhill skiing at Beaver Mountain. It was a perfect day with awesome fresh snow and about 9 inches of powder. I have not skiied in over 10 years and was a little concerned but things came back to me quickly. My goal was to not get injured and I managed to come away with no crashes and no injuries that I can speak of right now. I stuck to blue courses most of the day but towards end of the day went on a off course powder run that turned into black diamond material. I was in a little over my head but managed to make it out unscathed except for some very tired quads. I forgot how much of a workout downhill skiing can be. The quads really get worked pretty hard and I am beat after driving back at the end of the day to Provo. A very long, tiring day but fun. 

Ran a total of 13.2 miles this morning with an overall average of 6:40 pace. Met Sasha for 4:45am run as usual and he wanted to do a tempo as well. He wanted to do 5 mile tempo but I decieded a 2.5 mile tempo for myself was good. I actually felt ok today. Not what I would call great but not bad either. I ran the 2.5 mile tempo in 13:55 which is my fastest time. Mile splits were 5:39, 5:35 and last half in 2:41. I had about a one minute bathroom stop just before 2 miles so it probably helped the last half mile but I still feel I was faster than my previous best time of 14:08. Finished run back to BYU and did 135 push-ups and sit-ups followed by 3 more miles on the BYU indoor track. Last three miles on track were 7:22, 6:45, and 6:21. Gradually picked it up as I ran and felt ok even at 6:21. It was nice to have a day where quads were not feeling totally fatigued.

Easy 10 miles from Sasha's house at 4:45am. Average pace was about 7:33. We did 8x100m strides during the second half. I ran the 100m strides in about 18-19 seconds each. Legs were a little tired and could feel some soreness in the quads throughout the run. Right groin is bothering me a little as well. Sasha is planning 12x400m hard tomorrow so we will see how things go for me as I want to make sure I do not push it to hard.

14.15 miles total today. Met Sasha and did 6x400m with 200 jog on the trail in middle of run. 400s were hard but not all out. Splits were 74, 73, 74, 74, 75, 75. Quads still a little heavy and right groin and hip still bothering me a little. Ran back to BYU and did 150 push-ups and sit-ups followed by three more miles on indoor track at 7:06, 6:53, 6:27. Relaxed but gradually picked up as I felt ok. I have increased the push-up/sit-up routine to the following. I do sets of 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 of each for a total of 150 each now. Previously I was only doing 125 each. Only rest is the time it takes to switch between push-ups and sit-ups after each set. Trying to keep mileage up this week but will probably not run more than easy runs the next couple days before the 10 miler to give myself a chance at running at least a good tempo on Saturday.

Ran a very easy 8+ miles. Decieded to not run 10 today as the right groin and hip are still bothering me. We kept it very easy the whole time today between 7:30-40 pace. Not much else to write other than it was a balmy 39'F today.

Another easy day of only 6 miles and did 4xstrides just for the heck of it. Hip and groin still not 100%. Another grueling hill race in Ogden tomorrow! Should be a good workout at least.

Finally felt ok during a race. I felt pretty good at the start and decieded to just go with a faster pace and see what happens. I did not run the hills very strong but was able to recover and run well on the down and flat sections. Overall I am pleased with the result for where I am at in my training right now. Ran 3.1 warm up and a little over 4 miles after the race. Course was at 9.93 miles on the GPS. It was noted that we turned a block early around the 3 mile mark so that is where the .1 difference was lost. 17 miles for the day puts me at about 70 for the week as well.

Oh yeah my GPS mile splits were 1=5:53 (this felt very easy and actually caught Sasha's group and told them they needed to speed up); 2=5:12 (11:05) (mostly downhill but still very fast as I was trying to hold on to the tail end of Sasha's pack); 3=5:45 (16:50) (slowed down this mile as I knew this was a more realistic pace with all of the uphill running to come , at this point I was pretty much running by myself the rest of the racee); 4=6:05 (22:57) (this was a gradual uphill mile but not too bad); 5=6:39 (29:36) (this was when the road started to go up and only got worse as we went); 6=6:55 (36:31) (this mile would have been even slower but the last 1/4 mile was a slight down, this was a pretty tough 2 mile stretch); 7=7:18 (43:49) (pure pain right hear! monster hill that I just went into survival mode on and realized that I am not very strong on hills right now, OUCH!); 8=5:20 (49:09) (I recovered well and was able to really get moving again on the downhill at least for this mile); 9=5:55 (55:04) (I could feel the headwind on this mile and was not really enjoying it at this point); 10=5:32 on the short GPS mile but clocked a 5:58 actual last mile per course marking which I was happy with considering it had another good hill in it; overall 60:36.

Went kayaing on the Provo River for about an hour and a half in the afternoon. Kayaking is a great upper body workout and believe it or not it actually worked the cardiovascular as well. However the water is very cold at this time of year so my feet and hands were pretty frozen by the end. Two weeks until the Moab Adventure Xstream team race that I am racing. It should be pretty fun and very challenging.

14.04 miles today at an average of 7:23 pace. The legs are a little sore from the race on Saturday. Soreness is mainly in the outer quads and some in the shins. Ran relaxed today on the Provo River as usual. Ran 11 miles with Sasha and then hit the BYU track and did 150 push-ups and sit-ups routine followed by 3 more miles on the indoor track. 3 miles indoor were 7:16, 6:52, 6:43. Looking at having a higher mileage week this week and then somewhat of a rest week next week. Would be nice to hit somewhere around 80 miles on six day singles this week. Also plan on riding the bike at least twice and kayaking again on Saturday.

Easy 10.04 in the AM with Sasha along Provo River trail. Legs still a little sore but not too bad.

Rode mountain bike 12-14 miles on the trails along the bench. Tough up and down riding for just over an hour. I'm sure this counts for something mileage wise but not sure what. Worked the quads really hard during the ride. 

Ran from my house for a total of 11 miles. Sasha was not feeling well so I was on my own. Tough part about running from my house is finishing the last two miles up some pretty decent hills. Averaged 7:30 pace even with the hills. Relaxed run overall and legs are starting to feel much better.

Easy but very early 4:15am run. Met Sasha for 8 miles of it but he was still recovering from sickness. I have been running easier this week but increasing the miles. Goal is to get at least 80 miles this week and then look at adding tempos, etc... back in to the mix again next week. 12 miles for the day at about a 7:37 average overall.

14.1 miles this morning starting at 4:15am again. Ran 8 with Sasha and 12 on the Provo River Trail. Easy miles again. However, the last 2 miles I joined the cadets for their 2 mile run test. I was pacing the faster cadets. The first mile was 6:00 and the second mile was 5:33. Both felt good and very relaxed. I think I could have finished with a 5:20 mile but I was trying to pace one of the cadets and started to pull away too much so held back. Overall not feeling too bad and the miles are coming along nicely. Long hard workout day tomorrow so we will see how things go.

Wow, what a day. 38 miles total covered today via kayak, bike and running. 20 miles running, 14 miles in the hills on the mountain bike and 4 miles in the kayak down at the lake. Started the day with Sasha int he canyon and did 15 miles with 7.5 miles of up hill running and 7.5 miles of down. We ran the 3 mile tempo going down in 5:42, 5:42, and 5:29 and then turned and went up medium effort for a mile in about 6:29. My goal on the down hill 3 miles was to stay relaxed at what felt like a good 1/2 marathon effort. The 5:42 miles felt more like 1/2 marathon effort whereas I picked it up the third mile and that felt a bit harder but still not what I would consider 5K effort. When we turned to go up I backed off to what felt closer to marathon pace effort up hill. Finished 15 miles at 8:00am and had to hurry home to go watch my daughter sing int he conference center in Salt Lake. Left the house at 8:45am and was pulling up to the conference center about 9:30am just in time for the start. We then had to hurry back to BYU because she had a band concert that she needed to be back for at 12:30. We made it to BYU with 5 minutes to spare. At this point I was tired, hungry and ready for a break that was not coming anytime soon today.

The day continued at this pace as I met up with my team mates for the Adventure Xstream race for our final practice before next weeks competition. We headed to Utah Lake for an hour in the kayak covering about 4 miles. This is much more work than one can imagine if you have not done this before. Very hard on the upper body to work the paddles for an hour straight. The legs also get a little cramped up sitting for that long int he kayak. As soon as we were done we put our running shoes on and ran from the lake to BYU campus which is 5 miles of gradual uphill. This was our first real test with our whole team on a run and I was very surprised as everyone ran pretty strong. We were not sure how fast our female athlete could run but knew she had potential. Today she proved she can run. She had a baby about 3-4 months ago and she has obviuosly bounced back very quickly. We decieded to run at her pace and she actually was running about as fast as one of our male runners wanted to go. The first mile was 7:10 and she was chatting and very relaxed. Miles 2-4 were at exactly 7:00 pace and the 5th mile was a 6:45! 5 miles in 34:55 and she was talking the whole way. She is in much better shape than we anticipated.

From there we jumped on our mountain bikes and headed for the hills. We rode from BYU to Slate Canyon and started the severe climbing. There are some very long and steep hills along the trails that even required us to get off and push the bikes at some points. The quads were on fire big time and this was pretty tough. Climbing steep hills on loose surface on a mountain bike is not an easy or fun task. Rode for an hour covering only 13 miles so this gives one an idea of how tough this ride was. We really wanted to push it a little today as our final workout/test before next weekend at Moab. The race covers about 8-10 mils in the kayak followed by 30-40 on the bike and finishes with 6-8 miles running and a 300 foot rappel thrown in somewhere as well. We are hoping to do well even though this is our first attempt.

Overall, a very tough and challenging day today covering about 38 miles. with 20 miles running at just under 7:00 pace average. I am sitting here beat typing this. I did not eat or drink enough all day and am zonked. All I can say is I am truly glad tomorrow is a day of rest!

Ended up getting 81 miles of running in this week along with 27 miles on the bike in the hills and 4 miles in the kayak.

Overall I felt a little tired today but not any soreness to really mention. I thought I would be pretty sore from Saturday but fortunatley I am just a little tired. Ran almost 15 miles this morning at an average pace of 7:20. Started at 4:30am and ran almost 3 miles and then linked up with Sasha. Then ran 10 with Sasha back to BYU for a total of 12. Cadets were doing a 2 mile run for their PT test and I ran over to the start area and then decieded I should probably take it easy and just pace some of the slower cadets. Ran each 1/2 mile as follows at what felt very, very easy until the last 1/2 when I picked it up to what felt like threshold pace or slightly faster. Each 1/2 mile = 3:00, 3:10, 3:15, 2:45. Picked it up last 1/2 mile but still felt reasonable, I would say somewhere around 10K effort or slightly faster. Decent day overall. Also did 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups.

Started at 4:30am and ran with Sasha after a couple miles. We did a 5 mile tempo in the middle that started off at a comfortable pace and we tried to gradually speed up but I wanted to make sure I stayed at what felt no faster than 1/2 marathon effort. We did not look at splits during run just ran by feel and looked at splits afterwards. Splits were: 1= 6:20, 2=6:10, 3=6:09, 4=5:59, 5=5:49. Sasha sped up and pulled away over the last 1/2 mile but I did not want to push faster than 1/2 marathon effort so let him go and maintained my effort. Overall a good run with only minor issues in legs. I am starting to feel like things are coming around for me. I feel like my fitness level has really started to increase. 

 Total today 12.1 miles average of just under 7:00 pace overall.
 

Easy run at 4:30am with Sasha. We got hit pretty hard by the storm this morning. The rain was coming down pretty good and the wind was blowing it sideways thus making it very cold and miserable at times. Ran easy and just chatted averaged 7:24 pace for 11 miles. Taking it easy the next couple days to make sure I am rested for the 50-60 miles I have to cover on Saturday in Moab.

Easy 8.4 miles a little later this morning at 6:15am. Ran on my own and decieded to sleep in a little to rest up for Saturdays Adventure Xstream Race in Moab. Averaged 7:13 pace.

6.55 mile easy run with Sasha. It has felt good to sleep in the last couple days. Depart for Moab today. Looking forward to a fun but challenging race tomorrow.

Well our team survived the Moab Adventure Xstream race. I did not run 22 miles but I am giving myself credit for at least 22 miles of running effort wise. I did not come out completely unscathed as I crashed on the bike three times and really banged my right knee really hard on one of the crashes. The weather was cold and worst of all wet most of the day leading to some extremely difficult mountain bike riding at times as some of the sections over the course were on what they call slickrock and we discovered why it is called slickrock. One of my teammates crashed five times. Fortunately no race ending injuries for our team but I will have to see how my right knee fairs. I hit it really hard on a piece of solid rock. At the time I was in a lot of pain but quickly jumped back on the bike and just ignored it. At the end of the bike leg I took a peak at it and saw some good blood running down the leg but did not have time to really care and took off on the run. Luckily it did not hurt during the run. The first real chance I had to look at it closer was when we were waiting for the rappell. At that point I was a little concerned as it was swollen up pretty good. Continued on as it was not really hurting. By the end of the race the swelling actually had gone down a little so I was a little happier. Overall I think it is just a pretty good bruise as it is mainly just stiff and sore today with only a little swelling. Ice and Ibuprofin are my friends today. Other than the knee the rest of the body is tired and only a little bit of soreness. We will see how this week goes running wise. It was an awesome race and I have a lot of respect for the professional teams after doing this and seeing how fast they really are. I am not sure I will rush out to do another one any time soon but I had a blast and experienced a whole new type of racing and pain. Below is my race recap.

Before the race they do not tell you the order of events or distances, you recieve these at check-in time the night before. This leaves some planning and preparation to be done on race night. In the past it had always started with the kayak and then bike-run-rappel-bike. At race check-in we found out it would be bike-run-rappell-bike-kayak. The distances this year went heavy on the mountain bike side with some very hard and long climbs. The race started at 8:00 for the 37 or so competitive coed teams. So you had about 148 mountain bikes all crammed on a two lane road for the start. Our team got stuck behind some traffic at the start but we made our way up to the back of the lead pack of teams right before we left the road and started to climb on the dirt roads. The first leg of the bike would be a real gut check as it was a total climb fest followed by a very slick, fast and technical downhill section. When we turned off road we were at about 3,800 feet and commenced our climbing. Over the next 5-6 miles we climbed about 2,000 feet and then it did not end there as it did level out a little but we still were climbing gradually until about the 20 mile mark peaking out at about 6,400 feet. The first 5-6 miles was some of the steepest and toughest climbing I have ever seen. Not only was it very steep but it was also very sandy and muddy in spots as well. It was bad enough that everyone had to get off and walk throughout many sections as it was impossible to ride. Our team actually was doing quite well at this point. We then turned downhill and began to really fly. Maybe a little too fast as this is where we had our crashes. As none of us are very experienced moutain bike riders we would lose control around some turns that were tighter than anticipated and when you hit the slickrock in a turn with too much speed things were not so pretty. We still held our own at this point as a bunch of rookie amatuers. The run leg doubled back on the bike course so we were able to count teams and we determined that we were in 7th or 8th at the end of the bike leg and transitioned to the run. We knew we had a strong run team so we took off on the run at a good clip. However, one of our teammates started having stomach problems and cramping up a little so we had to slow down quite a bit. At this point no teams caught us even though we slowed down. The run leg was about 6 miles and the last 5 miles was all up hill. The climb was similiar to the big hill on the Striders course but lasted for 5 miles and was on slickrock and mud. The run was easy for me as the pace was slow enough to not really make me work too hard. However, I did strap a rope from me to our teammate that was hurting and pull him along which made me work a little bit more. Once we hit the top we got to truly have a blast and rappell off a 300 foot cliff. This was truly the best part of the race. Nothing like hooking up to a rope and leaning back over a cliff and walking off backwards. 300 feet is along way up when you are looking down over your shoulder from the top connected to a rope. The last 100 or so feet was a free fall rappell as the cliff cut back and away from you and you went straight down. Again this was the highlight of the race! We were then back on the bikes and this is where bad luck came our way. Shortly after jumping on the bikes again we had one teammate get a flat tire. It took about 15 minutes to fix the flat and get going again. During this time a couple of teams passed us but we were probably still in the top 10 as far as we could tell and feeling pretty good. We took off again and caught one team and were gaining on another when our luck took an even a bigger turn downwards. At the base of the last big climb and with about 10 miles of biking left one of our teammates bikes derailer snapped completely off. For those that do not know you cannot pedal a bike without the derailer. We were doomed at this point and realized it was now a fight to just figure out a way to finish. We attempted to make the bike into a single speed bike as a derailer is not needed if you can do this. As we worked on the bike we watched teams going streaming by over what was about 45 minutes of attempted repairs. Ultimately we could not get it to work at all and decieded to walk the last big uphill section and have him coast down the other side. At the bottom of the big hill we had about 6 miles left but it was all flat and down so we hooked a tow rope up from one bike to another and towed to the kayak transition point. Overall we had lost at least an hour in repair time between the two incidents and probably a little more due to having to walk and tow a rider the last 10 miles. However, we were determined to finish at this point and were happy to have made it to the kayaks. The last leg was about 9 miles down the colorado river paddling for what seemed forever. Paddling hard for a long period of time was very painful and a lot more work than I anicipated. This for me was the toughest part of the race and I was extremely happy to see the finish.

The official race results will be posted some time on Monday so we do not know our overall finish amongst coed teams but we are pretty sure we dropped well out of the top 10 after our mechanical failure. We finished in 8 hours and 46 minutes and did notice that one of the teams that passed us when we were broken down finished in 7 hours and 44 minutes and was 9th place. So we were on track for around a 7 hours and 30-40 minutes finish when that occured is our best guess. At the least the top 4 teams are professional teams sponsored by Solomon, Nike etc.. and it showed. The winning team was Team Solomon and finished in just under 6 hours which is really moving. This is truly another sport that I did not know much about going into it but I have a lot of respect for it and had a great time. I'm not sure if I will do it again next year but we will see.

Well that is the long story. I'm not sure how many will read it but thought it was worth posting for those that may. Hopefully the knee is ok and I recover quickly. Now that this is over I guess it is time to focus strictly on running again.

Oh yeah the total distances were roughly 43 miles by bike, 6 miles running, 9 miles in the kayak and 300 feet by rope!

Well, today was a test for the knee and body in general to see how things are doing after Saturday's adventure. So far so good. The knee is still a bit swollen but it does not really hurt to run on it. It feels a little stiff but that is about it. However, I did discover a few other bruises. I have one on my left knee that I did not notice untilI felt it during the run and afterwards when poking around at it found that it was bruised a little as well. Overall I am pleased as I am not very sore (the legs at least) and the knee seems ok. Most of my soreness is actually in the upper body from the kayak and probably some from the bike as well.

I ran an easy 11 miles along the Provo River and joined Sasha as usual. He wanted to get two miles of tempo work in and I wanted to err on the side of caution and not really push it. However, I did gradually pick it up for a couple of miles at what I would consider marathon pace effort running about 6:10 and 5:59 for the mile splits. Felt a little fatigure in the legs but otherwise not to bad. Overall averaged 7:11 pace for the 11 miles. Did 100 push-ups and sit-ups and could really feel the soreness in the shoulders and back. 

Easy 12 miles this morning with Sasha. Everything felt ok but I felt really awkward running this morning for some reason. It could have something to do with little sleep lsat night but I just felt really uncoordinated or something. Never really had this feeling before so it was kind of strange. Averaged 7:13 pace for 12 miles and did 10x100 meter strides. Still in recovery mode. I will try and keep the miles up this week but not psuh it unless I am feeling good.

Sasha was doing speed work and i went on ahead on the trail and right in the middle of the trail ran into a skunk. I stopped to avoid getting sprayed by him as he was not to happy to see me and did not really care to move out of the way either. All of a sudden here comes Sasha doing one of his 400s and I tell him to watch out for the skunk on the path. He just flys by me and right up on the skunk. After he went by I continued down the path and could really smell the skunk. I then ran into Sasha at the end of the path and as I went by him I could smell the skunk odor again. At this point I was wondering if he got sprayed. I continued on my run and he continued his workout and when I passed him again later I smelt the skunk again. Now I was pretty sure he was sprayed. When we finally linked up after he finished his workout I could still smell a bit of the skunk odor and told him that I think he may have been sprayed by the skunk. Not for sure but I think he may have been hit. We will have to find out if his family smelt the skunk when he went home. I'm sure he will write about it in his blog. 

15 easy but very cold, wet and miserable miles early this morning. It was snowing very heavy but it was warm enough that I was drenched and soaked to the bone so I was about frozen by the end of the run. Not much else to write today. Oh yeah average pace was 7:08 today and I am feeling ok in general but my knees are still bruised up but getting better.

Good luck to all of the Del Sol Relay guys this weekend! 

On a field training exercise with cadets this weekend in the hills and woods sleeping outside on the ground so getting runs in was going to be very difficult. Only three hours of sleep each night and not much time where we were not busy conducting exercises. However, we pretty much a lot of miles all day each day so I guess that counts for something. A lot of hills. I did manage to get in an 8 mile run in the evening which was a hilly run and I was not feeling so great from all of the walking all day. I did manage the last three miles or so at 6:00-6:30 pace.

After three hours of sleep I did not expect to get a run in today as we had a full day from 4:00am until midnight planned with no real breaks to speak of. I waas on my feet hiking over rough and hilly terrain the entire time trying to observe as much trainng as possible with the cadets. I hiked at least 9 miles and probably more so I gave myself credt for 9 miles. Not the same as running but believe it or not my legs are actually a little sore from all of the hiking.

After a second night of three hours of sleep and about 3 miles of hiking from 5:00-8:00am I finally got home and crashed for a few hours before taking James down to the BYU track for a run. He wanted to do a 5K on the track and see what he could do. We warmed up a mile and then ran the following for his 5K. 

Mile 1 = 7:02

Mile 2 = 6:54

Mile 3 = 6:44

5K = 21:22

So James set a 5K PR and did so with each mile getting faster. He ws hurting pretty good the last mile but he is starting to learn how to push it better all of the time. Not bad for 12 years old I guess.

Afterwards we cooled down a couple laps and then decieded to see how fast James could run a all out 100m. I had him do three of them. He complained at first beacause he was tired from the 5K but he did ok. He ran a 17.19 on the first and a 17.21 on the second. I then decieded to see what I could do on the third one and I hit a 14.5. These were all from a standing start. After one more jog lap I told James we were going to test his 400 meter speed as well. He protested a little but was willing to give it a shot. He chose lane 7 from the stagger and we ran 1:25 which is now his fastest 400m as well. So he now has PRs of the following:

100m = 17.19

400m = 1:25.25

1 Mile = 6:29

2 Mile = 13:38 (last 2 miles of 5K)

5K = 21:22